Feature Articles

Q&A with Phil Hart: Meet ULI LA's new Executive Director

January 18, 2007

By Jack Skelley

After a long affiliation with ULI, Philip Hart was named executive director of ULI Los Angeles in September 2006. Before signing on, Hart already possessed a vast history with ULI, including serving on numerous advisory services panels, the ULI Los Angeles Program Committee and the ULI Los Angeles Inner City Policy Committee. He is also the author of several Urban Land magazine articles.

For over 20 years Hart was a professor of Sociology and director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute at University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Hart’s expertise as an urban real estate developer is equally extensive, including project manager for the $60 million, 5,000 seat West Angeles Cathedral in South Los Angeles. We recently caught up with Hart to get his thoughts on some urban issues that will be crucial under his tenure.

ULI’s recent Fall Meeting was in Denver, which is also your home town. What is your comparison of the downtowns of both cities today?

Both Denver and Los Angeles are examples of cities that grew by sprawl. In the recent past both cities have worked on revitalizing their downtowns. LoDo (Denver’s historic Lower Downtown) used to look like junk when I was growing up. Now it is a thriving mixed-use neighborhood. In addition, between Coors Field, the Pepsi Center and Mile High Invesco Field, you have three professional sports arenas that have played a positive role in this downtown revitalization.

Staples Center in downtown L.A., principally owned by Denver resident Phil Anschutz, has had a similarly positive infl uence in this area. I look forward to a continuing positive impact as the LA Live development moves forward. Incidentally, while in Denver for the Fall Meeting, I gave several other ULI District Council Executive Directors a special Phil Hart Mobile Tour late one night. They saw downtown Denver and the neighboring Northeast Denver community where I grew up—probably in a light not seen on the other Fall Meeting mobile workshops.

As Los Angeles grapples with radically increasing densifi cation, what kind of role do you foresee ULI Los Angeles playing in the region?

ULI LA has already played a vital role in the region around the question of higher density. I lived and worked for many years in Boston, so I am attuned to the value in planning well for greater density. Despite growing up in a sprawling city like Denver and living in a sprawling city such as Los Angeles, I see the value in pushing for higher density development, because we are running out of available land. Thus, it is only smart to begin looking at different ways of doing development that match reality.

The city of New Orleans is a classic example of taking a low-rise development mentality to the extreme, such that the resultant sprawl into wetlands along with coastal erosion meant that by the time Katrina hit on August 29, 2005 the water was already at the city’s gates. Just as ULI has played a role in helping that devastated city come up with rebuilding strategies, so too can ULI LA play a meaningful role in relationship to the issues attendant to higher density development in this region.

Which leads us to your experience with the New Orleans ULI Advisory Panel. Was it a positive one?

It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I think it also represents some of ULI’s fi nest work over its 70 year history. Being in New Orleans just after Katrina hit was a sobering, emotional experience. The pace of rebuilding has not pleased me or others at ULI. But I think our blueprint will ultimately guide the redevelopment process. The ULI report, “New Orleans, Louisiana: Strategies for Rebuilding” needs to be read by everyone interested in urban planning and redevelopment.

I am now completing a book African Americans and New Orleans: Rebirth, Renewal and Rebuilding – An American Dilemma to be published by Amber Books (Phoenix, AZ) in 2007 that is giving me the opportunity to revisit our work there with a different perspective. The racial dimension as a component of the rebuilding process is so important. Pre-Katrina, New Orleans was a city that was two-thirds African American. However, one in three African Americans in New Orleans pre-Katrina lived below the poverty level—this despite having a series of African American mayors since 1978. So both race and class have to be part of the discussion in the rebuilding process, and not just the physical rebuilding of a city and its infrastructure.

In addition to development, you have a background in education and research. How will that affect your efforts as Executive Director?

ULI is essentially an education and research organization. We facilitate the open exchange of ideas, information and experience with a problem- solving perspective. This is what I have been doing my whole life and my work with ULI is a refl ection of this work. My mother was a public school teacher in the Denver Public Schools. My father was a property manager and developer. So I am from a background of educators and developers – just the nexus thatfi ts the ULI mission. I also see myself as a problem solver, and to be an effective problem solver you have to be informed.

Among the more prominent programs of ULI Los Angeles are Urban Marketplace, UrbanPlan, Young Leaders Group (YLG) and Technical Assistance Programs (TAPs). What will be your focus for these programs?

To further strengthen them and expand their reach. We have seen Urban Marketplace spread to Atlanta, St. Louis, Houston and Washington, D.C. I have had discussions with faith-based groups interested in the Urban Marketplace model as a format for addressing issues related to the urban church.

UrbanPlan continues to grow. I hope to strengthen our relationship with the LAUSD and to expand the program into other cities and towns.

I hope we can develop the infrastructure to conduct up to six TAPs per year, in addition to two TAPs carried out by our Young Leaders Group for non-profi ts on a pro-bono basis. Our YLG is strong and vital, and a model for other district councils.

You have stated that you hope to expand the District Council’s reach into the world of universities, faith-based organizations, and community development corporations. Can you explain why these will be important to ULI Los Angeles?

We have a good relationship with USC. I hope to extend this positive relationship to other colleges and universities in the area. I think the faith-based community has not been fully tapped by ULI LA, or by ULI as a whole for that matter. I have a strong relationship with this community and it is a natural fi t to expand that relationship given my new role with ULI LA. I think if we are successful then ULI will follow our lead. Community development corporations, whether secular or sacred, are a vital resource, and a growing presence in relationship to affordable housing.